The Great Actor
by Dems
Summary: Hermoine is running away from the person she knows who could hurt her in the worst way possible. What happens when that person finds her?


Muah. It is my first one-shot ever. Mostly because whenever I start a long story, I don't really like to finish it. Or if I do, I never post/type up the ending. So, this solves that problem! Please read and review it. I really love hearing from people.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the HP characters. I never said I did nor will I ever. This is just my one-shot off of it.

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**The Great Actor**

I wasn't sure when he would catch up to me, but I knew it wouldn't be very long from now. I knew I never stood a chance, but just knowing I tried my damnest to escape from him would be better than knowing I just gave up on all hope.

He hadn't been like that since seventh year and I thought he had changed. I thought he had become a different person, one whom I had foolishly let my guard down to over time and had come to trust, come to love. I should have known better.

He was a great actor. He fooled me and everyone else. We thought that after Dumbledore's death he was just as terrible as his father - even though it was Snape who technically killed Dumbledore.

"Hermoine!" called his voice faintly, making my heart beat faster and giving my legs more of a reason not to give in to the aching feeling they had begun to get.

Soon, however, I was caught short of breath and had to rest against a tree. I needed to hide, I couldn't keep running from him for forever like this. He would get me. I looked around in the darkness, searching for something that would make me hidden from his view and something he wouldn't expect of me. Then I saw it, the tree I was leaning on. It was thickly leaved, so much I couldn't even see past the first few branches. I knew he would be able to spot my trail ending, so I ran ahead about ten meters and cautiously, but quickly, went back to the tree.

I used a levitation spell on myself in order to get to the first branch, and was almost too weak to even accomplish that much. I sat up on the branch, my face attacked by the thorns I hadn't noticed before. It was of no matter to me. I was covered completely in scratches, twigs, leaves, and dirt already from tripping and barging through the brush of the forest. I grabbed onto the branch and hoisted myself up, trying to be aware of the thorned branches above me so as to not inflict any more damage than necessary. I began to climb further into the tree, the ground out of sight within moments. He would never catch me.

"Hermoine, I know you are in this bloody forest! Just stop running and I'll make it all stop!" he called again. Oh he'd make it all stop, he'd end my life. What a great way to end it all.

I waited for what seemed like hours, but was probably only just a few mere minutes. The faint glow of his wand came through the dark of the night and thorns and leaves of the tree. He soon did as well.

He looks gorgeous still, from what I can see, despite being covered with the forest just as I am. Stopping and stretching, he sighed. "Hermoine," he said, not yelling this time, "come on now. I hate chasing after you. Just stop for a moment so you can hear what I have to say."

He began to walk on again, unaware of my eyes following his every move. He stopped where I had ended my false trail and turned about. I could see through a small patch that he had a wry smile on his face. He was still the same monster I knew him as when I first met him. "Ah, so you are around here." He looked ahead and around him, hoping to catch sight of me. "Well I suppose this will be easier in explaining myself, then. Because you can't rightfully speak now, or you'd give away your location." He grins, probably for thinking of himself as clever.

He walked around, still looking for me on the ground. "It wasn't my fault," he begins, although I know that he is lying, "honestly. I wasn't the one who killed Harry. You must believe me, Hermoine." The light from the end of his wand stops just below my tree and settles there. I hear him do something unusual. I hear him sit at the base of the very tree I am in, crushing the twigs below him.

"It was Voldemort who had killed him. You wouldn't believe it, but it's true Hermoine. He came back. How I'm not sure." He paused for a moment, before becoming more silent. "It took everything I had just to keep our own daughter and son alive." What a liar. He killed our children just as he had Harry. I saw it with my own eyes.

"If I could I would have saved Harry, but it would have meant the death of our children and the death of myself. I couldn't let him kill Dezz or Demarco. They only had me to protect them. Sure there was Harry, but he had his hands tied with Voldemort. My entering would have only fucked up with Harry's spells and Voldemort would have seen our little Desiree and Demarco in my arms, and killed them without second thought. I couldn't let that happen." He grew silent and didn't speak again for a few more minutes.

I don't know exactly why, but I was holding my breath. My chest began to feel tight before I realized it and began to breath again. Was what he was saying true? Did Voldemort come back and kill Harry, not him? Were my eyes deceived? No, impossible.

"I know you don't believe me. I would have a hard time believing myself too, what with my past involvements on the dark side. But you have to believe me. Harry wouldn't want his death to also be the death of our relationship. You know how much he loved his godchildren. He wouldn't want their parents to be acting this way. He'd want for you to use that brilliant mind of yours to figure out the truth."

"Hermoine," at this, his voice cracks and I hear him quickly sniffle. He's crying. He never cries. He must be telling the truth. This is tearing him apart and hurting him so horribly. "Please Hermoine. If you don't understand, Voldemort will find Dezz's place and kill her before we have time to retrieve her. He'll kill me before you, for betraying him. For helping to, what we thought, kill him off."

At this my eyes begin to well up in tears. My babies. My beautiful little girl. My gorgeous little boy. If they're alive, I won't allow them to die by the hands of the Dark Lord.

He stood and sighed. "Maybe you'll understand that I wasn't lying when you find us dead." He paused again. " I really do love you Hermoine, and I hope you find a way to kill Voldemort for good. I'll see you when you've become old and have died. I'll see you in the afterlife." He began to walk away, no longer coming after me.

I stay in the tree consumed in my thoughts, still letting his words be completely comprehended. He's telling the truth. My instinct and heart are telling me so. My mind refuses to believe it, but I am mistaken from time to time. I go to call out to him, but when I become aware of his truth, he is gone. His light no longer in sight.

Hastily, I climb down the tree and run after him. There is no light. There is no path. There is nothing but the darkness of the forest and my need to be with him.

I run into something soft and plush, it giving an 'oompf' when I do so.

"Lumos!" the figure yells in surprise, I completely disregarding my own wand.

"Draco!" I cry out, practically knocking him over with a hug.

"Hermoine." Draco whispers, embracing me and stroking my hair, despite how matted and dirty it was. I break down and cry in his arms while he just stands there, holding me as if he would never let go. I wanted to stay like this for forever, but knew there were pressing matters at hand.

"I'm so sorry Dra-"

"Shh." He shushed me, placing his finger over my lips. "It's alright. I understand. We'll get to that later, but we-"

"Desiree! Demarco!" I whisper in shock, not sure if I whispered because of the silence of the wooded area, or because the breath was knocked out of me as I realized that they were still in danger.

Draco nodded. "We must retrieve them before..." He drops his sentence, knowing that I already know its ending, though neither of us daring to utter it.

He lets me go, his hand trailing down my arm to find my hand. He pulls me quickly behind him as we make our way through the forest. We don't speak any more, for it would be foolish to waste time and energy in doing so.

Eventually we make it out of the trees and apparate from the edge of the forest to our mansion. I know, it seems rather stupid to hide them there. But it's quite clever when you think about it. People would expect two people such and Draco and myself to be clever and hide her in a clever spot, not some unintelligible place such as our own home. So they overlook our humble abode and go to other places that seem more likely. And there within lies the intellegence of it.

"I'll go and get them while you pack up some things," Draco says and before I have time to respond he's gone.

I go to their room and quickly gather necessities and leave the room, running to the other wing where Draco is to be. Just as I open the door to the room an explosion occurs and I am pushed backwards against the wall behind me, the door being blown to merely inches away from myself. The last thing I see before I am knocked out is Draco in the back, unconscious, with little Dezz and Demarco in his arms and Voldemort standing over me with a cunning smile spread across his lips.

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Gah! I know. I'm so terrible for ending it this way. DX But, truth be told I was going to make this into a story where they make passionate love in the forest and end it with that. Bajeezes what a turn of events that took place! Hmm...Maybe I should do like a one-shot follow-up that reveals what truly would happen after that. Mwhahaha.. You'll just have to review for it and watch to find out. 


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